Wynonna Judd to play Hollywood Casino

“I just like to try stuff,” she said. “It’s almost like you just have to jump off or you’ll never know the thrill. Maybe I’m a thrill seeker. It’s either the dumbest move I’ve ever made, or exhilarating and people think I’m a badass, or they just go, ‘Wow, she’s insane.’”

The superstar has never been afraid to put herself out there.

Wynonna Judd. Photo by Kristin Barlowe

Like hitting the floor with Tony Dovolani for the recent season of “Dancing With the Stars.”

“This incredible two-time world champion came to my home. I turned my gym into a dance studio, and the next thing I know I’m doing the cha-cha? Oh yeah, that’s for me,” Wynonna said and laughed.

While she was the first to be eliminated from the show that season, she’s up for anything.

“If I get a call to go sing with Willie Nelson, I say yes because I’m both terrified and just exhilarated by the opportunity, and I just keep showing up to these things,” the singer-guitarist said. “I think I’m curious to see if I can pull it off, and when I do, the victory ride home is just massive, an epic day for me.”

There have been lots of big wins since Wynonna took the stage with her mother, Naomi. From 1983-91, The Judds, with their sweet harmonies, had 14 No. 1 country songs, including “Why Not Me,” “Girls’ Night Out,” “Love Is Alive” and “Have Mercy.” The Grammy-Award winners were riding high when a chronic case of Hepatitis C forced Naomi to retire.

Wynonna went solo in 1992.

“I was willing to go out on stage at the [American Music Awards] in front of all my peers in every genre of music and sing for the first time by myself, terrified,” she recalled.

“My mother taught me to fail brilliantly; it was her motto. And what happened was that Ashley [Judd, sister and actress] and I both turned it around and made it, I think, the ability to just be at times fearless.”

Success kept coming. Her first three singles — “She Is His Only Need,” “I Saw the Light” and “No One Else on Earth” — topped the country charts.

“Something You Can’t Live Without” is Wynonna’s latest single. She helped her husband, drummer Cactus Moser, write the rocking track with David Lee Murphy.

Asked when a new disc would be out, she said, “You know the old saying, ‘There will be no wine before its time?’ There will be no Wy before,” she stopped in mid-sentence to laugh. “Nowadays it’s harder to find certain songs that I want to sing because all of the songs being written are for 20- and 30-year-olds. It’s a little bit tougher to find a song that I can relate to; it’s taking a little extra time.”

She’s being patient.

“I’m looking for fun, that’s another thing a song is going to have to have, that sassy fun to it, because I’m pretty grateful as well as just so full of myself because I have put up with and dealt with so much in 30 years.”

One of the biggest challenges: her husband’s devastating motorcycle accident that took his leg and nearly his life last year. The couple decided to share their story; “Wynonna & Cactus: The Road Back” airs on Great American Country.

“You go from newlywed to nurse in a matter of seconds. It was only two months into our marriage, and I was still in that glow of saying ‘I do.’ And all of the sudden I’m watching him be life-flighted and, oh, by the way, I don’t know if he’s going to live in the next 10 minutes, and I’ve got a 45-minute ride in a car.

“I think this stuff, it not only makes you stronger, we’re bonded for life. And I think we wanted to tell our story not because we’re famous but because of the inspiration it’s given to so many,” Wynonna said. “We all need to see modern-day miracles and have hope.”

Wynonna and The Big Noise, including Moser, will play an 8 p.m. show July 20 at Hollywood Casino Toledo. Tickets are $45.

“I’ve been doing chores,” Wynonna said during a call from her farm near Nashville, Tenn. “That’s why I go on the road so I can be a diva. What I mean by ‘diva’ is I can luxuriate and bask in the glory of 12 hours of sleep and hmmm, I think I’ll go take a walk or I’ll take a nap or put more sparkle on my hair and then I can go out and get all that love and attention from the fans.

“I, of course, relish it; after 30 years you realize, oh my gosh, this is such a privilege.”

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Casino books four new acts for outdoor concert series

Four new dates have been added to Hollywood Casino Toledo’s Spotlight Summer Nights outdoor concert series.

Wynonna Judd and her band The Big Noise will perform on July 20, Chevelle on July 26, Ronnie Dunn on Aug. 2 and Travis Tritt on Aug. 24. All shows start at 8 p.m.

Tickets are $45 for Wynonna Judd and The Big Noise and Ronnie Dunn and $30 for Chevelle and Travis Tritt. Tickets for these four shows will be available soon at ticketweb.com as well as the Rodeo Drive gift shop inside the casino. All tickets are for general admission with first come, first serve seating starting at 6:30 p.m.

A covered stage will be set up on a parking lot next to the casino overlooking the Maumee River for each show along with ground-level seating for 2,500 people and food and drink tents.

Parking is free. Hot dogs, brats and alcoholic and nonalcoholic drinks will be available. Attendees, who must be 21 or older, will be able to go in and out of the casino with a wristband.

The casino’s inaugural summer concert series kicked off May 24 with The Temptations Review featuring Dennis Edwards and The Spinners. Next up is Air Supply on June 21 and LeAnn Rimes on July 5. Tickets to those shows are $30 each and available now at ticketweb.com and Rodeo Drive gift shop.

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Bonoff to play favorites, new songs

Karla Bonoff was fine-tuning her craft at the Troubadour in Los Angeles more than four decades ago alongside James Taylor, Elton John and Jackson Browne.

“It was an incredible time in music for songwriting, singers and songwriters writing new kinds of songs. It was pretty much an open field,” she said. “It wasn’t like there were millions of people doing it; it seemed that there was just this small group of us doing it. It was very exciting and very inspiring for me.”

At the famed nightclub, Bonoff forged friendships with musicians Wendy Waldman, Andrew Gold and Kenny Edwards, who had started the Stone Poneys with Linda Ronstadt.

Through that connection, Ronstadt heard some of Bonoff’s songs and recorded them. “Lose Again,” “If He’s Ever Near” and “Someone to Lay Down Beside Me” were on Ronstadt’s 1976 album “Hasten Down the Wind.”

One year later, Bonoff’s self-titled debut was released and featured the hit “I Can’t Hold On.” She was on the charts again with “Personally” from 1982’s “Wild Heart of the Young,” and her version of “The Water Is Wide” was featured on TV’s “thirtysomething.”

Karla Bonoff

“Joni Mitchell, Carole King, Laura Nyro were big influences,” Bonoff said. “[My music] was kind of a mixture of that combined with a lot of the pop music I grew up listening to on the radio — The Beatles and Motown, which formed a huge part of my early teenage years.”

Ronstadt recorded three more Bonoff songs for 1989’s “Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind.” Her duet with Aaron Neville on “All My Life” topped the charts and won the Grammy for Best Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group.

And in 1993, Wynonna Judd had a hit with Bonoff’s “Tell Me Why.”

“Songs, for me, kind of come out of a deeper, more subconscious place. I’m not one of those people who decide to write about something and sit in a room with two other people. Mine seem to come from some mysterious place,” Bonoff said. “I rely on being able to kind of get into that particular groove that allows me to write music. For me, it’s something that you hear and it kind of gets you at your gut, and if you’re lucky, you’re able to write a song that does that for other people as well.”

During a call from her Santa Barbara, Calif., home, the singer-songwriter said she is working on new material.

“We’ll probably play at least one [new song] at the show at The Ark,” she said.

Bonoff will perform at 8 p.m. April 15 at The Ark in Ann Arbor. Tickets are $25. Doors open at 7:30 p.m.

“I think people come to the shows at this point to hear stuff they really love and are familiar with,” she said. “I know for people [my music] brings up a lot of good memories, and people tell me it’s the soundtrack to their life.”